Mystery Tank...

I just bought a large fish tank (I believe it's a 55 gallon) for my boyfriend for Valentine's day from Craigslist.com for $35;D complete with a stand and light hood. The only oddity about it is it has a stainless steel frame on all of the edges that the glass connects as well as the bottom and top rim. The hood is all metal as well where it holds one tube fluorescent bulb and four smaller bulbs. It's a gorgeous tank, but I just can't find any info on it on the internet. The only thing I do see is that they are very much sought after.

I will post pictures as soon as i can find my camera.

 

Sounds kind of cool actually Congrats on the purchase! Also, you can go to the calculators section here (over on the top left), enter the measurements, and it will give you the exact size in gallons if you're unsure

 

Metal frame -> probably old.

 

Ok, here are the pictures. I think it is a really old tank. Oh, I forgot to mention, the bottom is made out of slate. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

 

Well, it's very pretty. I like that.

 

Thanks Peredhil. Does anyone have any idea how old this thing is? 60's? 70's? 80's?

 

oh so retro

 

It is cool looking! It reminds me of one of those streamline trailers. But in a cool way!
I have no idea on the age. I would guess 60's to early 70's?

 

Thats what we were thinking. Retro indeed. I love it tho. Its one of those things thats ugly and just so neat at the same time.

 

When I was a kid we had a 10 gallon tank with the exact same construction, slate bottom and stainless steel corner pieces. We bought that tank around 1974 or 1975.

I've read a few posts here in the last month about old tanks blowing out and the seals breaking. It would be a good idea to check all of the seals before filling it up. Saltwater may still be corrosive for the stainless steel. Not sure. I remember reading in some older books not to use metal tanks for SW.